Monday, November 16, 2015

The Best is Yet to Come:)

I can't believe also that this is my last letter. It's been a really hard last few hours. Saying goodbyes is really hard. They announced in both of our sacrament meetings that I have finished a full time mission, and will be returning home this week. That was so strange for me!! But, I am excited for the good things to come. It just kind of feels like a band-aid is being slowly ripped off, and I am ready to just basically leave instead of having to say so many goodbyes!!

This week was pretty good, since it ended with a baptism! I'm just so proud of PQ. He fought through so much to be able to be baptized, and he wore a tie for the first time after because to him it is symbolic of the covenant he made with God. He taught me a lot about diligence, and perseverance, and although he still has a young, budding testimony, he knows enough. I guess, in and of itself, that was a miracle! The service was so nice as well, and I loved how everything ran so smoothly.

I increased my faith this week by really focusing on Enos, and prayer. There's a quote that sits on my desk that I really like. It says, "Pray like Enos, Teach like Alma, Obey like Nephi, and Endure like Abinadi." Of course, this week I've been able to focus on the enduring part, and paired it with a study of the 10 virgins and their diligence in always keeping their lamps full. However, I had this realization this week that if I want to really develop a relationship with God, I need to really work on my prayers. Although I'm still not perfect at it, it has increased my faith in the power of prayer, and how much God really answers not only my prayers, but the prayers of people all around me. I hope that makes some type of sense...

Besides that, I have really seen the miracle of being able to feel of God's love for me, and just feeling peace. There is so much emotion that goes into ending a mission (especially for me because I just cry over everything...) but, I have been able to really feel how proud of me God is, and how He knows I have given my best.

This week, we really worked with members by calling many 4th ward members to followup on the ward mission plan! Most of them had forgotten it, but as we talk over the phone and commit them to do it (specifically) we are seeing such a positive response. I'm really, really excited for it! 4th ward can have miracles too! It's just going to take some patience. This whole experience though has really taught me about the power of a vision, and how if we really build off of and focus on the vision, we will be successful. I don't know why it didn't click until a few days ago, but it really clicked.

C finally got a really solid lesson in French this week, which was SO needed, but she slept through church which was so frustrating. E actually met us, and I think that love and patience with her, instead of pushing her to get baptized, will help. I'm always reminded of The District, and how they say, "we needed to draw her to baptism and not drag her". But, besides that many of our less actives/investigators were on vacation this week. So, it was a tougher week than usual. Also, we had a chance to have 7 New Investigators, and EVERYTHING fell through. It was so sad. But, I know we tried, and there are good things still to come for the area. L is doing really good, she got to fellowship a less active YSA that just moved here from Korea! Oh! That was also such a miracle this week. This cute girl had been praying for weeks to find the church here, and then, she met the Elders on the train, and we were able to introduce her to L, and show her the church. She is happy to be here, and I'm excited for L to have a new friend in the ward. God is so good.

Overall  I'm going to end with my favorite scripture about missionary work. 3 Nephi 5:13 "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." And, this doesn't stop here.

This is just the beginning, the best is yet to come :)

Love you all!!

I know the church is true, I know Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. We CAN receive revelation in our day to day lives, CHRIST LIVES, the Book of Mormon is the word of God, mighty prayer works miracles, THIS IS GOD'S WORK! And, it's all of our job and privilege to be a part of it - wherever we are in the world.

Sister Alyssa Crabb

PQ's baptism! 

Monday, November 9, 2015

So, this week, some pretty great stuff happened!

P Q passed his baptismal interview! He has had such a change of heart over the past few weeks it seems like, and he's started to just submit himself to all the commandments that he "doesn't understand" and put his doubts on hold. We prepared Elder Riddle really well for it, and told him that we think he may not be ready, but, he passed! He said he knows the spirit was directing the interview, and that is all I can ask! So, P Q is getting baptized this Saturday! YAY!!!
Also, we of course saw some miracles..

We got an awesome new investigator! J! Sometimes the good things in life take patience.  A couple Sundays back, we felt like we needed to spend some time going to J's house and making a Halloween invitation to give to her and her family. Luckily, that simple act of kindness (definitely inspired of the spirit...again during planning and prayer!) helped them to come to the ward Halloween party where not only were they able to actually meet us in person for the first time, but they coincidentally ran into one of the members of our ward - the P family - who had also had a genetically defective baby born on the exact same day. J and the P's had met in the hospital, but I don't believe that J knew that the P's were members of our ward. So, that was a miracle in and of itself! But, because of getting to know them at the party, we were finally able to teach J this week, and she has so many good questions, and is so prepared for the gospel. The only thing that will hold her back is if she's not really willing to make time to learn! But, she loves the sense of community of the ward, and is really curious why we can all get along so well, and where our religion began, etc. So, next time when we teach her the Restoration, good things are REALLy going to happen!

We also had a fantastic correlation with Brother C and were able to role play how we can help the 4th ward members fulfill the ward mission plan. He is an AMAZING ward mission leader, and he wants us to basically spark the members to actually fulfill the ward mission plan. So, we are going to do that, and we are going to do it by following up on the phone! 4th ward is going to have things happen as they continue to do the things that they have been asked to :). I'm convinced.

C got confused about the church - probably because she doesn't speak English very well, and French is her 2nd language....but, we will keep working with her! Also, K W is just waiting on a baptismal interview (she cried during the lesson, so that was good!) and the B's are just working on reading the Book of Mormon! Things are going well here, and we are just plugging along and trying to see what God needs us to do in our area.

Besides those fun things...we were able to accidentally hop into a taxi with a driver who was doing illegal drugs...(don't worrry, we're fine!) but, let's just say, we hopped out of the taxi really fast! We saw him pull into the parking lot we were in, and we thought he was parking so he could smoke really fast, but as we got closer to the window, I saw him doing something with a needle. I asked Sister Fuglistaler if he was doing drugs, and she thought I asked if he was drunk, and said no. So, I thought that we were fine, and so we hopped into the car! As we drove off though, he told us he is doing something very illegal in SG. It was such a strange moment! We just kind of laughed it off and had him drop us off way earlier than we had originally planned.

Also, I had a cute 7 year old boy kiss me on the cheek before I knew what was happening! He asked me if he could, and before I could decide if I should let him or not, he just did it ;). So cute and funny!

I had a really good dinner of Vietnamese spring rolls at a dinner, and decided I just love Asia!!

The week before last, I didn't really get to tell you, but I got to bear my dying testimony at Zone Conference and MLC. It's weird to bear your testimony at the end of your mission, but it's the best!

I don't know what to say...I'm glad that the gospel is motivated by love, and that the church is true! I love living here in Asia! I love the food, the people, the gospel, the green, the humidity, the crazy loud MRT's and being packed in like sardines, the hawker centers, the birds that wake me up in the morning, how much I sweat, the aircons and the aircon remotes, the cheechas, everything.

Love you all too and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Sister Crabb

With someone from her previous area, CCK

Halloween!

The W's

The C's

Monday, November 2, 2015

Ending a mission is really hard! I'm completely convinced that going home from a mission takes 10x more faith than going out on a mission. It gets harder and harder as the number of days gets smaller and smaller. But, I think overall, the last week was so refreshing for me because it gave me a chance to really reflect on what I've learned over the past 18 months, and the things I've been able to change in my life, and the people's lives I've touched. I think one of the sweetest things I've come to understand over my mission is the idea that I want to give everything of myself to Heavenly Father.

I'm grateful for Zone Conference and MLC and the things I've been able to learn so I can be a more effective missionary. From Zone Conference, the biggest commitments that I have taken away is that I am going to be more bold in contacting, and that I am going to use the new and returning member progress sheet more. The part that really hit home for me about the new and returning member progress sheet was the idea that the progress sheet should be used as a teaching record for less actives and recent converts to help them progress. As we've thought about the progress record that way, we were able to talk to our less active K W about getting an interview with Bishop, since that is one of the first steps in coming back to church. As we addressed that with her during her lesson, I felt so much more fulfilled because I felt like I wasn't simply helping her feel the spirit and uplifting her with a nice message, but that I was truly helping her make steps in coming unto Christ.

Besides that, to increase my faith this week, me and Sister Fuglistaler have really worked on finding more boldly (we took some things away from MLC) and have worked on being much more prepared, and leaving earlier for appointments. This has helped IMMENSELY and it's really nice to be able to have time to actually focus on contacting, and not have to worry about running to and from places. It has provided some really good opportunities to talk to people, and I feel like Heavenly Father is a lot more proud of me because I'm taking the time to talk to people around me all the time. Also, I really like the new key indicator because I really feel like it is helping me reflect on my contacting and see where I can improve! Like, I can be better at inviting quicker, and trying to get people to meet with us instead of just sharing the gospel and giving them a pamphlet or card. I don't feel like I struggle to talk to everyone, even about the gospel, sometimes I'm just not as effective at talking to everyone as I could be.

Another thing about faith this week that I liked was the idea of faith, too, being one of trust and when things got discouraging, I simply remembered that "This is God's work, and if I keep going with faith, things will be fine." That simple mindset made all the difference for me, and it brought an added measure of peace into my week.

The miracle of the week was C! I'm so grateful for the spirit, and how it guides the work. I prayed before weekly planning in my heart that it would be a positive experience and that we would be able to truly get the revelation we needed to be able to help our investigators. As we were pondering on C and her church attendance, instead of thinking that she just needs to strengthen her testimony and then she will desire to come to church, I decided that we needed to pause and think. Instantly, the thought came into my mind that we should utilize the primary program to be able to get her and her boys to church. So, we told her about the program, and she came on Sunday for the first time in a long time! And, she was glowing. I've never seen her happier. When we talked to her about seeing her on Friday, she looked at us and said, "Yes! And next Sunday!" I'm so grateful for the spirit, and the spirit of revelation that helped us understand that utilizing something the ward was doing, was exactly what our investigator needed to desire to come and partake of the gospel at church.

Besides that, we got a new investigator! We contacted a really awesome referral this week at a baptism (we contacted a lot of referrals this week) that we were going to try and make a new investigator and we prayed pretty hard for it. However, we got to church on Sunday, and found out that things just weren't going to work out. I sat in sacrament meeting and felt pretty debilitated because I felt that we had put such a hard focus on finding and seeking referrals, and we hadn't seen any results. In that moment, I looked back, and saw a man who I had seen at church before. We had talked, but he hadn't really expressed an interest in learning. However, I felt that he could become a new investigator. I told Sister Fuglistaler, and we went over and talked to him after sacrament. After listening to his life's story, we found out he has been at church for the past 5 weeks, and has been meeting with the Bishop to learn about the Atonement. He said he's been reading the Book of Mormon, and he feels the gospel working in his life. We asked if we could share some messages with him to help him as he searches for truth, and he was totally open. Such a change from the last time we talked to him. We were able to share about the plan of salvation, and he is willing to meet us consistently. I'm so excited to work with T and help him see how the Gospel really can bless his life. I'm grateful also that Heavenly Father answers prayers, as I remember Sister Fuglistaler praying for us to be able to find "another way to find investigators" if the referral fell through.

We worked with members by contacting numerous referrals from Halloween and having our Ward Mission Leader help us by scheduling appointments with members for us. It made a HUGE difference, and relieved a lot of stress from us. Yay for Ward Mission leaders.

Some random thoughts...
The work is slowly progressing, and I know because I can feel the spirit that I am a successful missionary. P Q has a baptismal interview this week, and although things got really hard at certain points this week, we were able to muster up the faith enough to keep going. I'm grateful for Heavenly Father and His role in our lives.

Love,
Sister Crabb

These are some pictures one of the senior missionaries posted on Facebook from Zone Conference.

Monday, October 26, 2015

This week felt like another week of good old missionary work. I still desire to teach more people, and by teach I mean actually teach the lessons, which I feel like we haven't done as much as I would like to, but I do love teaching people on the train, and on the bus, and on the street. I think I have become pretty good at sharing brief statements of testimony and truth with people. I have faith that someday, those will be remembered by people, and they will be grateful that I was willing to share the gospel with them.

The potential investigator stat is really fun, and I think it makes me think a lot more about my contacting. Although I am pretty bold in talking to everyone and sharing the gospel with them, I could work on being better at inviting people to learn and asking for their phone numbers. I have faith that everything is going to work out this week with contacting. We are going to find people to teach! I'm ready. I'm slightly frustrated that we haven't been able to find people, but this week I studied PMG Ch 9 about service, have a couple goals and a plan to improve my contacting, and I know that as I do that and pray in faith, that no matter what happens, everything will be alright. It's interesting, I had a couple moments this week where I felt really strongly that we needed to do something to try and find new investigators that didn't turn into anything. However, I felt peaceful after because I knew that I had followed the spirit and done exactly what I needed to in that moment. God is in control of this work, and sometimes when things get hard, it's difficult to remember that. You want to fight and pull yourself down, but yet, you just need to work on one step at a time, and realize that as you ask God, "what lack I yet" and then keep going, everything will work out. I prayed actually for a really difficult last transfer, and one where I would really be able to stretch and grow and see weaknesses. I don't want to leave my mission not being able to know where I really need to change so I can become more like the Savior, and I've definitely felt that the last little bit! I've gotten better though at seeing all the small miracles, and am grateful for the small ways that I am able to see God's perspective on things, and see the good work that I am doing.  And, I have found some really awesome weaknesses that I can improve on ;) The trick is actually applying the gospel, which I think takes a lot more work and effort than just talking about and testifying of the gospel.

This week, I increased my faith by trying to kick out all the negative thoughts that Satan puts into my head! I looked at it in Adjusting to Missionary Life, and I realized that Satan really does try and control our thoughts by putting things into our minds that we don't really like, etc. So, I increased my faith by "talking back to negative thinking" and having more positive thoughts! We had a great District Meeting on Faith this last week, and I studied it for Zone Conference, and I think I like how much of a mindset faith is - how it takes work and effort, and needs to be used every single day! And, when we do it every day, we are able to strengthen ourselves as we improve through repentance, solemnly commit to be better during the sacrament, and then ultimately have the spirit as more of a constant companion. It's a beautiful process.

The biggest miracle we saw this week was with our investigators lining up perfectly with our members who we brought to lessons. Sister Fuglistaler taught K W on exchanges and the member we brought was absolutely perfect. But besides that, we had a lesson on Sunday with P Q, and the member we brought, Sister G, had actually been a convert herself and everything she talked about was exactly what P Q needed to hear. She had been trying to get an answer if the Book of Mormon was true, while still holding onto a few doubts, and it didn't work. It was only when she let go of everything, that she got her answers. Hopefully P Q can put all his little doubts and uncertainties on the shelf, at least for a few moments, so he can get a more spiritual confirmation that the Book of Mormon is true!! We will be praying for that this week.

Another really cool experience we had this week was with our members. One of our members, Sister J, has a sister-in-law who wants to hear the discussions, however, because of her husband, the situation is a little bit difficult. Sister J asked us if we would be willing to help her by teaching her some of the discussions so she knew better what would be taught to her sister-in-law, so she could help with the situation. So, we ended up this week teaching  Sister J and her husband about a 20 min. Restoration lesson, and it was SO POWERFUL.  Before the lesson, Sister J didn't understand why the Book of Mormon needed to be such an important part of her testimony. Then, when we started reading the Book of Mormon introduction page, she couldn't even read because she started crying. It was such a wonderful lesson to be in. And, to top it off, at the end of the lesson, the husband said the spirit was so strong, and that he would invite his co-worker to hear the Restoration from us! A co-worker who he was only planning on giving a Book of Mormon to before the lesson. The spirit really is powerful, and I love seeing it operate in lessons.

Besides that, we are working with N M to help her desire to have the sacrament taken to her at work every week, helping the B teens have faith enough to read the Book of Mormon spiritually and prayerfully, and helping L stay strong! She is doing so well, and this week when things were rough for her, she prayed, and felt a clear prompting from the Holy Ghost that she needed to get a blessing from her home teachers. She did so, and felt great after. I'm so grateful that she is so connected to the gospel, and not the missionaries. A true golden convert! She hasn't missed a Sunday since we met, and she told us that after she heard the Restoration lesson, she wanted to learn more so badly, and was afraid that we wouldn't invite her to do so.

We worked with members this week by making a list of ways that our ward mission leader could better support us, and he wrote them all down, and is willing to do them! He literally fulfilled his calling to perfection on Sunday.

A cool opportunity I had this week was to accompany a song called "Gethsemane". It's really simple, but I thought I would put a couple lines into my letter because it's simply been stuck in my head all week -
"Gethsemane...Jesus Loves me...So He went willingly....to Gethsemane. He felt all that was bad, wicked or sad all the pain we ever would know. While His friends were asleep, He vowed to keep, His promise made long ago...." "The hardest thing that ever was done, the greatest gift that ever was known, this was done by Jesus...this fight was won by Jesus..."
I'm grateful for the power of music, and how wonderful it is to have a Savior who loves us.

Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Crabb

Also! We had a great service project this week where someone we awkwardly handed a card to as the doors were closing (one that didn't have our number on it!) came! He hunted down the church at Newton for a long time because he had nothing to do and wanted to come. SO COOL! God can totally do his own work. Even when the missionaries happen to not have a card with their number on it!

She didn't give a description or explanation of these pictures.....not sure who the person is getting baptized....maybe someone she knew from another area who is now getting baptized.

Monday, October 19, 2015

This week was also a little bit rough, but it was definitely scattered with small miracles all over the place! It's funny, that when we seem to not be able to contact expats that want to learn about the gospel, for some reason, other missionaries in Singapore just start sending us people!

The biggest miracle we saw was definitely on Sunday. So, before Sunday, we had not taught a single investigator lesson. People are out of town, or too busy, etc. It's interesting too, because I feel like these people have great spiritual experiences, and then they choose not to meet with us. Near the beginning of my mission, we didn't create spiritual experiences that were nearly as powerful or at all, so I understand why people would not want to continue to meet us. It's just different I guess being on the opposite side of everything and seeing people really feel the spirit and then reject it. It can just be heartbreaking because you know exactly what this gospel can do for people. ANYWAYS, on Saturday night, Sister Fuglistaler and I just prayed and prayed for a miracle. We needed anything or anyone to come to church, or be willing to meet us Sunday evening.  So, because we needed to help with the 1st ward RS lesson, we walked into 4th ward sacrament meeting pretty late. We hurried in though, and Sister Fuglistaler was like, "let's go and sit by Y, she's sitting alone." So, we slipped in next to her (I totally smashed her foot on my way across the row and felt so bad), and as soon as we did, a cute girl in front of us turned around and said, "How are you sisters! This is my friend Brother K! He's visiting church with me today!"  So, we were really excited about the referral to begin with, but to make the little miracle even better, as we were talking to the nice girl, her name is Sister A, we found out that her entire family have been members for years, but she just never got baptized. She bore her testimony to us about the Book of Mormon, and the church, and basically, she is a dry member! She literally could be baptized this weekend into 4th ward with her family if she wanted to. However, there's something that must be holding her back, because she wants to be baptized, but doesn't want to put a date on it. Hopefully we can crack her concern with the spirit this week.

Besides that, our only other lesson was with our investigator Brother P Q from China (yes, this is the one that is extremely logical, but wants to be baptized.). Anyhow, as we met with him, we just felt the spirit really strongly as he talked about conference. As we asked him about his questions he had prepared for conference, and if he felt like he had received any answers, he said (and this was one of my favorite comments of the lesson!)  "Every single speaker spoke about my questions. Every single speaker." So, not sure what exactly his questions were, but he said he will feel like he can make a good decision about his baptism after he finished reading conference this next week or two.
So, in a nutshell, our miracles are that we are able to have two people that may potentially be able to get baptized in the next month or so! That is a really big deal.

Our less actives and recent convert L are doing really well as well.  We met with a few this week, and are slowly trying to help them strengthen their testimonies! KW is holding together pretty well, although she did not come to church this week :(.

This week, we worked with members by helping teach the "Feed my Sheep" lesson from Ezra Taft Benson. We worked with the teacher to help her understand what she can do to help the RS sisters understand their role in being a shepherd, and then we got to speak at the end about how love goes a really long way. We then passed around a calendar to have members sign up to come to our appointments. Anyhow, we are also in the works of figuring out how to utilize our ward mission leader better in coordinating our efforts with members. This way, we will be able to focus more on other things besides trying to schedule members to come to our lessons.

I think one thing I really like about Heavenly Father, is He always pushes us to be better in a loving, caring way! If there are any voices we hear that are not nice, not kind, etc, they are not from God. And, we can talk back to them by replacing them with good, wholesome, thoughts - thoughts of things we know God feels about us. Just a random thought, but I think if we could all more deeply understand how much God really loves us, and how He truly cares about us, our actions towards ourselves and the others around us would be different.

Finally, at our Zone Meeting this week, I was dubbed as "her majesty Sister Crabb, Queen of Singapore" since I have been here for so long. Basically I got to knight the new missionaries in Singapore since I have served here for so long, and that was thoroughly exciting. Besides that, I made Chicken Rice for the first time, and will probably pick up a packet to bring home so I can make it for you all! It was really, really good! And, probably not the most healthy ;). Overall, I love the gospel, and I love the members! We also got to teach a 7 year old to prepare her for her baptism, and we got to continue to meet with so many wonderful members, and encourage them to do missionary work.
I dressed up this week in a Sari, and I got my hair cut by Sister Fuglistaer - her first haircut! And that was an experience. Don't worry, I taught her what an inch is, and she cut off the dead ends only.

Love you all!! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Crabb

Knights of SG cups that we got at Zone Meeting...everyone got a medieval name. I was "Her Majesty Lady Crabb, Queen of Singapore".  

I think one of the most tender mercies I've seen near the end of my mission, is my seed planting actually doing something! These are people that remember me for one contact or one phone call, who are now, about 6 months to a year later, learning about the church/baptized! yay!!

Marina Bay

Marina Bay

Sometimes, I feel really Asian over here! This is at Marina Bay...where we went last P-Day. 

Monday, October 12, 2015

It was a harder week - harder to meet people, and people just are busy and don't like to keep commitments, so that is a little frustrating. I increased my faith this week by working on the whole "seeking revelation thing" that I wrote about last week. IT WORKS!! That's all I have to say. Revelation and the spirit are some of the most amazing blessings of being members of this church. I just don't understand why anyone would choose to not be a part of all this...but, I think that we are going to try and work on utilizing our dinner appointments more for referrals. I spent some good time in Chapter 9 one morning this week, and I feel like I learned some cool things to do that I hadn't even thought about before. Preach My Gospel really is like scripture! It's amazing. It's amazing too, how when we ask, seek, and knock, our prayers are answered.

I absolutely loved conference! It made me so happy to be able to listen to all the apostles. I think my favorite talk by far was President Monson’s. I just want to influence people for good, but need to work on some things to get there. And, I also really liked Elder Nelson's talk! We all laughed at the ponderizing talk - and I totally knew he was a BYU b-ball player!  I liked Elder Bednar and President Uchtdorf’s too, and Elder Hales! Awh man. I just liked them all! I can't wait to study them all again!  I was really spiritually fed, and it's amazing that all the questions I had were answered. I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who answers our prayers, who wants us to succeed. I'm planning on working on being a better light (from President Monson’s talk) and think I may take the 6 attributes he discussed and make some plans to apply them into my life each month for the next 6 months. Also, President Nelson's talk was so empowering!! I'm so excited to change the world!!

The miracle I want to relay to you this week is with our less active N M. So, a couple weeks ago on exchanges Sister Fuglistaler and Sister Huff taught her the Plan of Salvation. Although it was a simple lesson, and Sister Fuglistaler told me it felt slightly rushed, it really touched our less active. As we sat there and listened to her this week, she told us that she decided to quit coffee and tea because of the lesson. We had no idea that she even had a problem with coffee and tea!! It's amazing how when we really bring the spirit to lessons, it touches people’s hearts, and if they're willing to let it in, they can repent and make the changes necessary in their lives that will allow them to be like God and live with Him someday.

As far as Investigators go - J is progressing in her slow and simple way. She understands the church, but she doesn't have a solid foundation of the basics. We also think she holds herself back a little bit. So, we hope that President Eyring’s talk from conference will help her. Our less active K W listened to conference with her non- member husband, and following up with her about her church experience was great. She told us that her husband stayed all 3 hours on his own free will. She also loved when we told her the phrase "enjoy to the end" and so she pasted it on her fridge. She is so cute, and I love working with her! L loved conference, and is going strong still!

Really quick, I would like to add a little challenge to you all! I LOVED reading this week about a mighty change of heart in Alma, and how letting the gospel into our hearts is what really allows them to change. If you have time, I would totally recommend studying this. It was such a fun study, and I learned a lot about how the gospel is connected to helping me become converted.

I'm not a perfect missionary, and sometimes weeks are hard, and frustrating, but I know that this is God's work, and that God has a plan for everyone. I love fresh starts, and new beginnings. I'm grateful for a Savior that makes them possible.

Love,
Sister Crabb

This is the P family (Bishop)

These are the daughters of one of our cute English students!!!

Monday, October 5, 2015

I'm SUPER excited to stay here in 1st and 4th ward. I can't imagine ending my mission anywhere else, and  I have a fire and desire to give it 110 percent until the last day of my mission. I want to be the best Sister Crabb I can be!

Let me give you some highlights of things that I learned this week, and things that happened. First of all, I increased my faith in prophets and apostles being called of God this week. I spent a small portion of my Sunday morning reading conference talks before church to prepare myself to take the sacrament (something I've been doing recently is trying to be better at preparing for the sacrament) and as I was reading and praying, I came across a talk in 2000 by Ronald A. Rasband. As I looked at his name, I felt the spirit so strongly confirm to me that he had been called to be in the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. I had no idea at this point who had actually been called. However, the spirit was so strong in that moment for me, that I cannot deny that apostles and our dear prophet are called of God.

Besides that, I've been working on feeling God's love more, delegating (I asked the sisters what they wanted to have shared at MLC...I didn't want it to just be my thoughts and opinions, because I'm really only there because I represent them), and I've also been really SEEKING revelation. I sit in MLC sometimes and think, wow! How do all these awesome missionaries come up with these ideas. Then I realized, why not me? If I really want to seek out ways to improve as a missionary, I've got Preach my Gospel, I've got the scriptures, and I've got the spirit. There is NOTHING stopping me except myself. So, I decided that in the next little bit, I am going to actively SEEK revelation.  It helped this last weekend, as I felt so guided to passages of the Book of Mormon for our investigator J, as well as in our lesson with the B teenagers. I've never felt more guided during a lesson than during that lesson! We came in, all planned and ready to put them on date. Then, they hadn't really had a great experience with the Book of Mormon, so we just read Lehi's dream together, and it was SO powerful. We had a couple prospective missionaries there with us, and they got to bare their testimonies, and it was just a fantastic lesson. One of the 'prospective missionaries' mothers actually told us on Saturday that she is super, super grateful that her son came with us, and that he had a great experience.

Besides that...L got her patriarchal blessing, and we worked with members to be able to hopefully set up a great service project that will help 4th ward fulfill their mission plan!
The biggest miracle of the week? A lady named T came to church last week with one of our members, and she is open to hearing a little bit more with her. So, we came from the pouring rain of our P-day activity to our member’s house and were able to teach her the Restoration. I'm so grateful that we are able to have miracles in this work, because if I was supposed to do this by myself, nothing would really get done!

I love this work, I love our investigators.
As far as less actives go, we have a few that we are actively working with, and Sister K W was able to come to church on Sunday! She said that it felt great, and that she hadn't been in a long long time. She is super sweet, and is such a special part of my mission. I hope we can work with her husband, and help him get baptized :).

Love, (from my little section of the vineyard...)
Sister Crabb

So, this is just a classic missionary photo I HAD to take :)

I got to hold a bald vulture this week! It was really scary actually, it weighed 5 pounds, and is from Africa. Her name was Hazel, and they put a nice piece of steak in my hand and then she flew and landed on my hand with the giant glove. Basically, being blonde haired and blue eyed has it's perks here in Singapore :)

"It is better to Look UP"

We got to have Sister Simmons come out with us for a night since we are the STL's, and it was WAY fun :)

We did a really awesome talent show to celebrate Sister Carson's last Sunday night! I got volunteered to do the hokey pokey, and then we did Harry Potter puppet pals as the final act. Super fun! I was Dumbledore in that if you care:)

Monday, September 28, 2015

Ummm..I can't copy and paste!!!
SO, in a couple sentences,

K W is AWESOME!! She bore her soul to us about why she wants to come back to church. She has a son with some big challenges, and she KNOWS this is where happiness is.

We had someone bring a friend to church who we are meeting tonight, and a LA (less active) just walked into church.

We have a large pool for our English class of Japanese students.

I LOVE YOU!!

I'm learning so much, but I don't have time to write it. Just remember, covenants are powerful, and so is preparation. Please prepare for conference!!! It will make it so much more meaningful because I know Heavenly Father will trust you with answers because you are searching for them. Prophets and apostles are called of God, and they CANNOT lead us astray. Their words are Christ's, so be prepared. Think about what you would do if the Savior was personally coming to speak to you. Would you have some things ready to talk about? Probably.

Love,
Sister Crabb

Here's her explanation of the dinner with kids from last week:

The dinner was just a typical meal that was supposed to have the parents there, but last minute the parents couldn't be there, so the kids were just there by themselves. The kids were all primary aged! Like, 11 down to 3. And yes, it was very fun. The purpose was just a normal member dinner. And the helper is a Phillipina maid. A lot of expats and Chinese people have them here. They just help with cleaning and cooking, etc. so the moms can do other things they need to get done, and can spend more time with their kids.

This fruit is EVERYWHERE for the Chinese lantern festival/mooncake festival. It's called pomelo fruit. 

We always eat at Subway as a district after district meeting.

I found a coconut this week that a really nice Chinese man gave to me. He was right outside of our apartment and had knocked them down out of the tree in our condos area. I was fascinated, and so he told me to take one, so I did, and took the honor of taking a selfie at the church with it while we waited for our super awesome less active. 

The haze is SUPER bad here right now. Like, it got to "hazardous" on the PSI scale. Don't worry though, because L brought us masks. We are all smiling in this picture, but you just can't tell. 

I just love L!!

Monday, September 21, 2015

This week has been really great! There have been some good, and some hard, but I love the hard because it helps me learn and grow and become converted, which is my ultimate goal - to be converted so I can receive exaltation. Sorry this may be a crazy train of thoughts...but bear with me!!!

Let me give you a little bit of a run down of what is so awesome about this week! Sister L is a fantastic recent convert. She ended up helping a Toa Payoh (a district within Singapore) investigator want to continue learning about the gospel. The investigator comes to church for the spirit, but we may need some help with fellowship, as the YSA that are in 1st ward are dropping like flies.

I seriously loved going to JB this week! It was one of the highlights of my mission. I prayed and prayed for a week or two to be able to know what I could share with the girls there, and my ultimate idea came down to coming unto Christ. I was able to share some things from home, and really bare powerful testimony. It was one of my favorite experiences I've had. It was such a tender mercy as well because I lost my voice that morning from the haze, but I was able to get it back in enough time to be able to speak. Heavenly Father really does bless his servants, and I'm so grateful for it! I love the idea too that as missionaries, we come and may be speaking to numerous people, but we get to minister to the 'one'. Elder Bednar said that apostles usually go on errands to speak to many people, but are sent to specific areas for one person and one experience - he does it all the time! I've noticed that theme as well throughout my mission, and I don't know if we touched all the girls on Saturday, but I know at least one girl E now wants to serve a mission, and is so excited about it. If we only came for her, then mission accomplished.

This week I increased my faith by spiritually preparing for exchanges. I've been studying Christlike leadership, and something that came to my attention was that spiritually preparing is more than praying and thinking about the sisters; it is studying hard, pondering, and fasting, as well as preparing to enter an exchange with a humble attitude. So, this week I did a special fast the day before my exchange so I would be the most spiritually prepared I could be - so I could be close to the Holy Ghost to know how to handle the situations I would be put it. I'm so grateful because Heavenly Father really answered my prayers, and the exchange I went on was one of the best of my mission. I felt much more confident, and I know I was really able to help and bless Sister Tu, because I was prepared. Besides that, I've been listening to the spirit during the sacrament, and studies, and have a couple good little things to work on so I can become more Christlike - I want to continue to work on comparing myself less to others and put a picture of Christ above my bed so I can more easily "remember Him".

The miracle we saw this week was P Q! After praying really hard to be able to find someone to get baptized, it turns out there is an investigator who wants to be baptized on the 3rd of October. We aren't sure if he's completely ready yet, but we do know that he has a desire, and if we can build off of that, we can have a baptism this transfer, which would be such a miracle. Prayer really, really works! I've been praying for Heavenly Father to send us not only prepared people, but people who can be baptized! I seriously don't know why I haven't prayed for that more throughout my mission.

Also, we now have 7 people who are Japanese and want to learn English from us! English class really is an inspired idea. I've been working also on being more bold after Zone Meeting, and I have been working on being more creative in contacting - it's been helping! We are slowly getting more people who have potential to be taught.

I worked with members this week by doing really good follow up on their potential referrals, and keeping records of it. It would be so nice if the area book had a spot for member missionary work, because sometimes I feel it's hard to keep track of things that happen with members transfer after transfer, and sometimes the poor members get the same lessons, and work with a potential referral begins at scratch dinner appointment after dinner appointment :)

Here's my spiritual thought for the week :)
I loved reading in Mosiah this week about Alma's people's burdens being lightened off their backs, and the people of Limhi going out to find a way out of bondage. The people of Limhi, as they went to find Zarahemla, and only found the ruins of the Jaredites must have been disappointed and felt discouraged and like they had failed. However, the 24 Jaredite plates are now the Book of Ether, and a few days (it says in the scriptures) after they returned, Ammon helped free the people of Limhi. Although their expedition wasn't what they expected, they were still able to accomplish a great work! Also, the people of Alma were righteous, but God gave them burdens to bless them - and their faith and story ultimately was meant to help other people in the future, as well as themselves. I guess the moral is, as we trust God, no matter what happens, we can have faith that it's all for our good! However, we must be consistently trying to make our lives like Christ's, or else it simply won't work out. Strive your best to be like Christ, and then leave it to God - put it in His hands. Love you! Have a great week!!!

Love,
Sister Crabb

Speaking at JB Young Women's Conference

We are the Knights of SG! We got fake swords at our zone meeting. It was pretty epic :0

The B family - they took us to Din Tai Fung restaurant - yummy!

The night I got punched in the face....so, we ended up at a dinner appointment this week hosted by some kids - and only kids. There was a helper there so it was legal, but man! It was crazy!! One little 7 year old boy said, "high five, outer space (he puts his hands way high) so I reach to get them, and while I do, he legitimately hits me square in the face and says, "in your face!" Best dinner I've ever been too!

Exchanges:)